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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a panel display which uses gold as a conductive element and a matrix of carbon fibers as emitters. The invention provides a novel defined pixel width of three emitter fibers per cell. Each solo dot or cell is positioned within three emulsion layers of suspended nano-crystals stack positioned vertically atop one-another with each of these respective layers being excited by a single fiber from each cell. Each fiber length end is positioned at the mid-point of each respective polymer layer thickness and produces one of red, green, or blue color required to complete the image formation.
2. Description of the Related Art including Information Disclosed under 37 C.F.R. 1.97 and 1.98
A search of the prior art located the following United States patents which are believed to be representative of the present state of the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 6,380,670 B1, issued Apr. 30, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,741 B2, issued Jul. 2, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,847 B1, issued Jul. 9, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,420,826, issued Jul. 16, 2002, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,906 B1, issued Jul. 23, 2002.
Conventional display panels in the art are designed from micro-tech development in the computer chip industry. This technology employs modern silicon wafer breakthroughs that over the past ten years provided the increased resolution and bright definition display monitors used throughout business and personal applications.
Much of this art is based on the encapsulated cathode ray tube to protect the screen elements from environmental exposure and resulting damage. The envelope is necessary to: (i) hold the gasses required to create discharge boundaries within the tube and outward to the responding phosphorus pixels; (ii) maintain a rigid framework for the screen; and (iii) provide a safety barrier from vacuum tube implosion. Although new, more responsive materials have been developed for displays, the basic design in the art is maintained because of the higher manufacturing costs required by the new concepts.
The present invention relates to flat panel displays which use an emulsion based light source. The light sources in the art are typically derived from metal emitters such as calcium. Calcium metal as an emitter is favored in the art due to its relatively low work function, i.e. the ability to easily release electrons, and sustain this level of electron emission without erosion. The work function of calcium is 2.0 which indicates a greater emission rate and quicker recovery time.
The metals used in the art, however, present difficulties with respect to their reactivities with water and oxygen. As such, these metal emitters in the art oxidize quickly or draw moisture or oxygen from other components of the panel displays.
The art also seeks to produce electron emission from a flat surface by applying an opposing voltage on a conductive over-coat of the emulsion. The resulting potential difference between the calcium, or other metal emitter, and the top layer of the cell causes conductance through the medium and produces photons. By doping the emulsion with certain materials, colors could be produced, particularly the primary colors, blue, red and green. Panels in the art require relatively high current to drive this process, and the necessary DC voltage tends to erode the emitter causing the pixel or cell to die.
Thus, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a flexible display panel which uses a conductive metal which is relatively inert to oxygen or moisture.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a flexible display panel which uses carbon fibers as emitters.
Yet another intended and desired feature of the present invention is to provide a flexible monitor which can be adapted to many more applications than monitors in the art. For example, adaptable applications for the flexible monitor are viewing screens for military tanks, military land vehicles, mobile search and detection vehicles, aircraft, helicopters, and individual apparel for image acquisition in field environments.
The flexible display panel of the present invention is adaptable to any consumer markets which use a viewing screen as well as commercial and other markets such as military, advertising, medical imaging, aviation, automobiles, appliances, and toys.
The design and development as shown below allows for the thin membrane flexible display panel to be rolled into a tube or cylinder one inch or less in diameter for storage or transport. When needed, the flexible display panel can be unrolled to an extended flat position for operation and viewing.
The concept of the present invention also lends itself to a three-dimensional imaging process by which adjacent pixel emissions are time controlled to create a depth of field to the panel image.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a panel display apparatus that eliminates the need for gaps, buffers, and/or etching between the emitting elements and the color means by surrounding the emitting elements within the color means. This feature greatly reduces the costs of materials and processing steps required for panel display manufacturing.
Other features, advantages, and objects of the present invention will become apparent with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings.